A roving band of humans and other animals, making vegan food in Nashville, TN, Asheville, NC, and points in between.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Vegan MoFo Day 13 : Papaya Bread

Last year during MoFo, I wrote about the raw food book ("No-Cook" Book by John Tobe, 1969) which I inherited from my grandmother. I'll be trying more recipes from it this month.

Tobe features a number of breads made by mixing flour with a fruit or vegetable puree and then allowing it to dry in the sun. He clearly wasn't living in Nashville in November. "In the sun" = break out the dehydrator.

As I saw a nice papaya the other day, I decided to start with his papaya bread (veganized to replace the honey):

Mix together the flours. Add the agave and (slowly) enough papaya to make a workable dough. I had a pretty big papaya, and this took about 3/4 of it. Roll out the dough on a floured board and cut it into squares or whatever shape. Place on dehydrator trays, and dehydrate until dry. This recipe filled two trays in my Excalibur, and took about 24 hours to become completely dry. I made mine cookie thickness, and they would dry faster if you rolled them thinner. I started them at about 145 F, and turned down the temp to 125 F after a couple of hours. You could easily do this at a raw-food temperature, but it would take longer.

Results: a nice cracker. At first bite, the mind says "plain, floury cracker" but then the papaya taste starts to come in. I might add a tiny bit of salt and/or other seasoning if making again, and I am curious to try some of Tobe's other dehydrated breads.

I love old cookbooks and ppl who own them i mean they are the best...i love their brown pages and outdated info but making recipes from them seem so fresh..u should see my collection!I have lots of sun here!